T1 Bentgrass

[Jim Johnson]

Does anybody have any experience working with, or golfing at, courses which have T1 bentgrass for putting greens? It sounds like it's the latest and greatest of the bents...curious as to how it performs.

Thanks,
JJ

[TEPaul]

JJ:

Is this the new strain also called "Tyee"?

[Peter Wagner]

Tom,

Tyee and T-1 are similar bentgrasses from different seed manufacturers, Tyee is from an Oregon company and T-1 is from Tony Jacklin.  Both are in the creeping bentgrass family that have been genetically engineered to resist poa and some refer to these types as '4th generation bentgrass'.

We redid our fairways about 18 months ago with a 4th generation bent (T-1 I think) and it has worked well for us.  Probably the most notable differences from our former bent fairways (18 years old at the time) are greater resistance to extreme temperature, better divot re-growth, and slight improvement in poa resistance.

4th generation bent also seem to handle slightly under-watering stress better as well.

This whole field is in it's very early stages of development and I think we will see some remarkable grasses in the next 5 to 10 years. 

- Peter

[Jim Johnson]

Tom,

This is the link where I first read about it...
http://www.brettyoung.ca/professionalturf/turf/T-1_Creeping_Bentgrass.pdf

I'd heard of the A-1 and A-4 bents, but hadn't heard about T-1 until this.

JJ

[BCrosby]

Is T-1 more tolerant of heat than older strains?

I ask because lots of courses in the SE are considering switching from bent to bermuda. They might be swapping one problem for another, however. Bent can be a problem in the heat, but Bermuda can be a problem in cold weather, especially if temps go below 20 degrees or so. Which happens in the SE.

If there are new bents coming on line that are more heat tolerant, it would be a win/win in the SE.

Bob

[TEPaul]

"4th generation bent also seem to handle slightly under-watering stress better as well."

Peter:

I do know for us our A4 loves dryness a lot more than the bent strains that preceded it. So I guess it can be said that the 3rd generation bent (As and Gs) loves dryness which is great for firming things up and it is also a lot denser than the bents that preceded it. Management-wise I don't think that's a problem exactly it's just a deal that requires a pretty different way to go for supers used to the olders bents.

[Peter Wagner]

Is T-1 more tolerant of heat than older strains?

I ask because lots of courses in the SE are considering switching from bent to bermuda. They might be swapping one problem for another, however. Bent can be a problem in the heat, but Bermuda can be a problem in cold weather, especially if temps go below 20 degrees or so. Which happens in the SE.

If there are new bents coming on line that are more heat tolerant, it would be a win/win in the SE.

Bob

Bob,

Yes, these new bentgrasses are MUCH better at extreme temps.  My home course is in Southern California and we routinely see 95 degree summer days with occasional highs of 105.  In the winter we can dip as low as 30 degrees at night and we see frost delays for pretty much all of December and January.

With our previous older bentgrass the above extremes weakened our fairways year after year.  Since we regrassed 18 months ago with the 4th generation bent we are able to water much less which promotes a much better root structure.  I'm guessing here but I have to believe this better root structure leads to more temp tolerance.  Bermuda is still more robust but these new bents are far less fragile than the earlier bents.

Without being critical of the manufacturers, I think you have to dial down some of the claims made about weed and poa resistance.  All of that sounds really good but my limited experience says they are still a few years away from delivering on those claims.  Still, these newer grasses are really cool and it's my opinion that this area of technology advancement will ultimately lead to a breakthrough in design.


Tom,

Yes, we are able to use much less water with this 4th gen bentgrass.  I'd guess that after grow-in we are at least 20% less than before.  Our conditions are much drier than they have ever been and as a result we are firmer and faster.

- Peter

[Art_Schaupeter]

We used T1 on the greens and the tees at Old Hawthorne, which opened up last summer in Columbia, Missouri.  It was used for all of the reasons listed already, heat tolerance, improved disease resistance, drought tolerance, etc.  I haven't spoken with the superintendent regarding the specifics of how the grass has done relative to the claims, but I do know that he and the owners have been extremely happy with the performance in general.  I have played 6 rounds out there over the past year, and the greens have really been outstanding every time, whether it was early spring or mid-summer.  They were planted in September of 2006 and the course opened for play in May 2007.  The other interesting aspect is how early in the spring the T-1 gets it's color, a real dark green.  I seeded greens at another project at the same time with a different variety, and the T-1 really blew them away.  This is the only experience I have with T-1 so far.

[TEPaul]

"Bob,
Yes, these new bentgrasses are MUCH better at extreme temps.  My home course is in Southern California and we routinely see 95 degree summer days with occasional highs of 105.  In the winter we can dip as low as 30 degrees at night and we see frost delays for pretty much all of December and January."


Peter:

I wonder how true that really is or if there may not be some monkey in the mix there? I'm not saying that some of the new bents aren't more heat tolerant or even a lot more heat tolerant but there may be another factor at work here.

I don't know much about agronomy but where I live and where Bob Crosby lives compared to where you live just might be apples and oranges in this way.

Sure you guys can get and do get higher actual temperatures than we might on the east coast but the thing I've been told is so dangerous to grass and that stresses it most is not just the actual "temperature" factor in degrees but it's the COMBINED temperature and humidity INDEX.

Around here they say if that combined HEAT AND HUMIDITY index starts to get close to 150 and above most any grass can get into the danger stress zone real fast. I guess in a sense it's not just the temperature number it's the fact that with real high humidity too, particularly subsurface the grass essentially tends to BOIL!

Out there you guys may have higher numerical temperatures but I doubt you have anything like the severe humidity indexes we have up and down the East Coast.

So if these new bents can stand a lot higher temperatures that's one thing but can they stand really high COMBINED heat AND humidity indexes?

[Peter Wagner]

Tom,

Yes that's a good point, we have very low humidity in my area that probably averages 20% in the summer.  Last week we got all the way up to 55% humidity and everyone was complaining!

I know that these new bents like to grow in the 50 to 75 degree weather the best and there is almost zero growth at the extreme temps.  The manufacturers have all of the climate and zone information needed to determine if a particular area will work for these new bents.  When in doubt I would grow a small test farm with maybe 3 or 4 candidate grasses.  Grow it in, take some divots, measure the growth rate, check color, etc.

We cheated and just asked our turf consultant, Paul Latshaw Sr., what the right grass choice should be.  Paul, a Philly boy BTW, checked all the factors and we came up with 4th gen bent and we are confident we made the right call.

- Peter

[Scott DeBolt]

T-1 is the latest in a line of bentgrass..  I am the Director of JacklinGolf and this is our variety. It has been extremely successful all over the country... would be happy to answer any grassing questions..  Courses in the south are going more and more to the High Density bermudas and the line continues to creep further north...however, we have not had a very hard winter in the transition zone in several years...  the last one in early 90's pretty much damaged all bermuda grass regardless of mowing height... 

Alpha is another variety that is aggressive against poa but is not a thatch producer...

Oh, and Tony Jacklin does not have anything to do with Jacklin Seed....  We used him for an ad one year....but he has never had any ownership in the company.. just the same last name....

[Jim Sweeney]

Our problem is annual bluegrass in some fairways- apparently the result of contaminated seed when we regrassed a few years ago. We have tried the available remedies with limited success. How can the 4th generation bents help us?